Vaca Muerta hazards are mostly above ground.

摘要

According to Wood Mackenzie's Research Director for Latin America Horacio Cuenca, Argentina's Vaca Muerta shale play is as competitive as any—at least, when it comes to geology. "The Vaca Muerta can compete—in terms of the single well economics, the resource price and the productivity of the well — with the best wells in the US. From the sub-surface perspective, and even from the single well economics, it is competitive," he said. "But there are a lot of other issues there that will determine how fast production grows, how much that grows over time, and those are very, very tricky to forecast." Production-from just 8% of the basin's acreage—is forecast to rise by 43% on-year in 2017 to 77K boe/d, and then to 113K boe/d in 2018. Ultimately, Wood Mackenzie said, production could peak at around 700K-1.25MM b/d around 2031.